Thursday, February 21, 2013

as governor, Christie has gutted many programs that aimed to address climate change. He got rid of the Office of Climate Change and Energy within the Department of Environmental Protection shortly after taking office, withdrew the state from the Northeast's cap and trade plan known as the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), weakened the state's renewable energy standard, and took $210 million from the state's clean energy fund to balance the budget.

Finally we have the following assessment from Kevin Trenberth, senior scientist at the U.S. National Center for Atmospheric Research's Climate Analysis Section. "Yes, undoubtedly. The environment in which all storms form has changed owing to human activities. The human component does not change much from year to year and affects all storms."

Undoubtedly. Affects all storms. Got it. [Does carbon dioxide make any weather event less extreme or less dangerous?]

In daily weather forecasting, a heavy wishcaster will be proven wrong time and time again. But in climate forecasting, the results won’t be known for decades, or longer. So, climate wishcasting is likely to continue well into the future.